UN experts to probe alleged Syria chemical attacks
EDITH M. LEDERER 1 hour ago
Politics Syria
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. experts will travel to Syria as soon as possible to investigate three alleged incidents of chemical weapons attacks, the United Nations announced Wednesday.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said the green light for the investigation followed "the understanding reached with the government of Syria" during last week's visit to Damascus by U.N. disarmament chief Angela Kane and the head of the chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom.
The announcement caps more than four months of behind-the-scenes talks aimed at getting chemical experts on the ground to investigate more than one alleged incident. Whether any signs of chemical weapons use remain at the three sites months after their alleged use remains to be seen.
The mandate of the investigation team is to report on whether chemical weapons were used, and if so which chemical weapon, but not to determine the responsibility for an attack.
When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed to a U.N. investigation in March, he said the announcement "should serve as an unequivocal reminder that the use of chemical weapons is a crime against humanity."
Nesirky said Sellstrom's team will visit Khan al-Assal, a village on the southwestern outskirts of the embattled city of Aleppo, which was captured by the rebels last week and was under attack by government forces Wednesday. The government and rebels blame each other for a purported chemical weapons attack on the village on March 19 that killed at least 30 people.
Nesirky did not give any details of the other two incidents to be investigated. A well-informed U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions on the issue have been private, said Sellstrom is expected to choose the two other sites based on the technical and scientific information the U.N. has received from governments, doctors, alleged victims and others.
Syria asked the secretary-general to investigate the Khan al-Assal incident and balked at a broader investigation sought by Ban after Britain, France and the United States sent the U.N. information about other alleged attacks in Homs, Damascus, Aleppo and elsewhere.
U.N. Mideast envoy Robert Serry told the Security Council last week that the U.N. has received 13 reports of alleged chemical weapons use in Syria.
"The secretary-general remains mindful of other reported incidents," Nesirky said Wednesday, "and the mission will also continue to seek clarification from the member states concerned."
The diplomat stressed that the chemical weapons experts ought have access to all 13 sites in the future. Last week, the Syrian National Coalition, the Western-backed opposition group, told members of the U.N. Security Council that it would provide access to a U.N. investigation team to any sites they control, the diplomat said.
Britain and France initially raised allegations of chemical weapons use in two locations in Khan al-Assal and the village of Ataybah in the vicinity of Damascus on March 19 and in Homs on Dec. 23.
On June 13, the United States said it had conclusive evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime had used chemical weapons against opposition forces. That crossed what President Barack Obama had called a "red line" and prompted a U.S. decision to send arms and ammunition to the opposition, not just humanitarian aid and non-lethal material like armored vests and night goggles.
In a letter to the secretary-general the following day, then-U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States had determined that the nerve agent sarin was used in the March 19 attack on Khan al-Assal and also in an April 13 attack on the Aleppo neighborhood of Shaykh Maqsud. She said unspecified chemicals, possibly including chemical warfare agents, were used May 14 in an attack on Qasr Abu Samrah and in a May 23 attack on Adra.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said earlier this month that experts from Russia, Syria's closest ally, determined that Syrian rebels made sarin and used it in the March 19 attack on Khan al-Assal. The U.S., Britain and France reiterated at the time that they have seen no evidence to indicate that the opposition has acquired or used chemical weapons.
Churkin told reporters after delivering an 80-page report to the secretary-general that Syria asked Russia to investigate the attack after the U.N. team of chemical weapons experts was unable to enter the country because of the dispute over the probe's scope.
Churkin later gave copies of the report to the British, French and Americans who discovered that several pages were missing.
The Russian Foreign Ministry's deputy information director, Maria Zakharova, told AP that "there are in fact several pages missing which contain scientific technical information not having direct relation to the results of the analysis conducted by our experts that were presented to the U.N. Secretariat."
"These pages were intended for 'internal use' and did not influence the conclusion of the report in any way," Zakharova said. "The conclusion, as we have already stated, is that the munition filled with chemical warfare agents was produced and used on March 19 in the vicinity of Aleppo by non-governmental forces."
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01082013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
OPINION_ America and Russia Can Skip a Reboot
Op-Ed Contributor
The New York Times
America and Russia Can Skip a Reboot
By JOB C. HENNING
Published: July 30, 2013
One often hears that the United States needs to work on overcoming mistrust and improving relations with Russia, based on purported shared interests. All the while, however, the relationship seems to careen from crisis to crisis, ranging from Syria to Snowden.
The fact is this time any effort to reboot ties with Russia isn’t likely to work. Whatever the merits of the “reset” effort in 2009, it is not a good idea for Washington to spend time and political capital to once again try to build a strategic partnership.
First, arms control, which was a key focus of the “reset” and is at the center of calls for new efforts to rebuild a relationship. While the United States sees the 2010 New Start treaty as a step toward a zero-nuclear world, the Russian government has shown no interest in further reducing its nuclear capability, especially given its weakening economic prospects and declining conventional forces.
If there are any doubts, note that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel failed to elicit any positive response from the Kremlin when he announced in March a unilateral decision not to build the fourth and final phase of the European missile defense shield, which was to include long-range interceptors that would have done more than any other part of the program to undermine Russia’s strategic deterrent.
As desirable as they may be, President Obama’s calls from Berlin last month for further reductions in deployed nuclear weapons and a discussion of limitations on tactical nuclear weapons are likely to fall on deaf ears.
Second, renewed attention to a strategic U.S.-Russia relationship, especially one based on an atavistic platform of great-power arms control, is likely to augment the waning domestic support for Vladimir Putin.
There is no indication Putin has a need to actually reach any deals with the United States; on the contrary, he wins by demonstrating that the United States needs him.
At the same time, trying to reformulate a relationship around criticizing Russia’s human-rights record would achieve little other than to empower cynics who see such criticism only as a tool to weaken Russia.
Third, cooperation on Iran is often described as a key benefit of the “reset” and a goal of an improved relationship. But Russia supported three rounds of U.N. sanctions on Iran prior to the “reset,” in 2006-2008. And over the past several months Russia has been warding off new sanctions as Iran promises to stop enrichment at the 20 percent threshold. At the same time, the Russian-built civilian Bushehr nuclear reactor in Iran has come on line, and in Moscow, Putin welcomed the outgoing Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to discuss energy exports, space cooperation and joint naval training in the Caspian.
While Russian cooperation on sanctions against Iran is important, it is not the product of a strategic relationship between Russia and the United States, but a tactical calculation by Russia to constrain Iranian power while at the same time ensuring prolonged tension between Iran and the United States.
Fourth, the short-lived spurt in U.S.-Russia counterterrorism coordination after the Boston bombing was more a product of expediency than common interests. It was important for Putin to demonstrate Russia’s preparedness in the lead-up to the Sochi Winter Olympics. Apart from a very few instances, Russia’s domestic security problems simply have nothing to do with those of the United States.
Fifth, regarding Syria, Russia is solely focused on preserving its port and its trade relationship there, while the United States seeks to end the conflict and stabilize the region through a combination of military assistance and training, possible intervention and negotiations. As the death toll rises above 100,000, Russia is sending advanced anti-ship weapons to Syria and indicates no reluctance to proceed with the delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles systems — the only purpose of both being to deter potential action by the international community.
The fact that such shipments are not currently prohibited by multilateral sanctions is a failure of strategy and diplomacy — but also beside the point. Strengthening Bashar al-Assad’s ability to shoot down U.S. and allied planes is outrageous by any standard.
Finally, in Georgia, Russian troops continue to occupy the sovereign territory of another state — a country that last year held free and fair elections that led to a peaceful transfer of power and is making a notable contribution to allied military operations in Afghanistan.
These divergent interests simply will not support a new and productive strategic relationship between the United States and Russia. But sometimes there is nothing wrong with maintaining a tactical, opportunistic relationship. Washington should remain ready to exploit opportunities for cooperation with Putin on issues where interests do happen to overlap.
At the same time, the United States should focus its strategic attention elsewhere. As it settles into its second term, the Obama administration can exercise far-reaching global leadership through a reinvigorated trans-Atlantic alliance, the pivot to Asia, and free trade negotiations in the Pacific and the Atlantic.
Job C. Henning is adjunct senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 31, 2013, in The International Herald Tribune.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01082013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
The New York Times
America and Russia Can Skip a Reboot
By JOB C. HENNING
Published: July 30, 2013
One often hears that the United States needs to work on overcoming mistrust and improving relations with Russia, based on purported shared interests. All the while, however, the relationship seems to careen from crisis to crisis, ranging from Syria to Snowden.
The fact is this time any effort to reboot ties with Russia isn’t likely to work. Whatever the merits of the “reset” effort in 2009, it is not a good idea for Washington to spend time and political capital to once again try to build a strategic partnership.
First, arms control, which was a key focus of the “reset” and is at the center of calls for new efforts to rebuild a relationship. While the United States sees the 2010 New Start treaty as a step toward a zero-nuclear world, the Russian government has shown no interest in further reducing its nuclear capability, especially given its weakening economic prospects and declining conventional forces.
If there are any doubts, note that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel failed to elicit any positive response from the Kremlin when he announced in March a unilateral decision not to build the fourth and final phase of the European missile defense shield, which was to include long-range interceptors that would have done more than any other part of the program to undermine Russia’s strategic deterrent.
As desirable as they may be, President Obama’s calls from Berlin last month for further reductions in deployed nuclear weapons and a discussion of limitations on tactical nuclear weapons are likely to fall on deaf ears.
Second, renewed attention to a strategic U.S.-Russia relationship, especially one based on an atavistic platform of great-power arms control, is likely to augment the waning domestic support for Vladimir Putin.
There is no indication Putin has a need to actually reach any deals with the United States; on the contrary, he wins by demonstrating that the United States needs him.
At the same time, trying to reformulate a relationship around criticizing Russia’s human-rights record would achieve little other than to empower cynics who see such criticism only as a tool to weaken Russia.
Third, cooperation on Iran is often described as a key benefit of the “reset” and a goal of an improved relationship. But Russia supported three rounds of U.N. sanctions on Iran prior to the “reset,” in 2006-2008. And over the past several months Russia has been warding off new sanctions as Iran promises to stop enrichment at the 20 percent threshold. At the same time, the Russian-built civilian Bushehr nuclear reactor in Iran has come on line, and in Moscow, Putin welcomed the outgoing Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to discuss energy exports, space cooperation and joint naval training in the Caspian.
While Russian cooperation on sanctions against Iran is important, it is not the product of a strategic relationship between Russia and the United States, but a tactical calculation by Russia to constrain Iranian power while at the same time ensuring prolonged tension between Iran and the United States.
Fourth, the short-lived spurt in U.S.-Russia counterterrorism coordination after the Boston bombing was more a product of expediency than common interests. It was important for Putin to demonstrate Russia’s preparedness in the lead-up to the Sochi Winter Olympics. Apart from a very few instances, Russia’s domestic security problems simply have nothing to do with those of the United States.
Fifth, regarding Syria, Russia is solely focused on preserving its port and its trade relationship there, while the United States seeks to end the conflict and stabilize the region through a combination of military assistance and training, possible intervention and negotiations. As the death toll rises above 100,000, Russia is sending advanced anti-ship weapons to Syria and indicates no reluctance to proceed with the delivery of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles systems — the only purpose of both being to deter potential action by the international community.
The fact that such shipments are not currently prohibited by multilateral sanctions is a failure of strategy and diplomacy — but also beside the point. Strengthening Bashar al-Assad’s ability to shoot down U.S. and allied planes is outrageous by any standard.
Finally, in Georgia, Russian troops continue to occupy the sovereign territory of another state — a country that last year held free and fair elections that led to a peaceful transfer of power and is making a notable contribution to allied military operations in Afghanistan.
These divergent interests simply will not support a new and productive strategic relationship between the United States and Russia. But sometimes there is nothing wrong with maintaining a tactical, opportunistic relationship. Washington should remain ready to exploit opportunities for cooperation with Putin on issues where interests do happen to overlap.
At the same time, the United States should focus its strategic attention elsewhere. As it settles into its second term, the Obama administration can exercise far-reaching global leadership through a reinvigorated trans-Atlantic alliance, the pivot to Asia, and free trade negotiations in the Pacific and the Atlantic.
Job C. Henning is adjunct senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 31, 2013, in The International Herald Tribune.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01082013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
WORLD POLITICS REVIEW_ As Afghanistan War Draws Down, U.S. Interest in Central Asia Fades
As Afghanistan War Draws Down, U.S. Interest in Central Asia Fades
By Joshua Kucera, on 24 Jul 2013, Briefing
Photo: Cargo plane refuels at Manas International Airport, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (U.S. Air Force photo).
On June 26, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev formally signed a law “annulling” the country's agreement with the U.S. to host an air base in his country. The true significance of the law is unclear, and it could be a bargaining ploy to gain more favorable terms for a new agreement on the base, which has been the United States’ most conspicuous presence in Central Asia since being established shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Regardless, the passage of the law has highlighted how U.S. interest in Central Asia is destined to diminish as the U.S. extracts itself from Afghanistan. In the short term, U.S. interest in Central Asia will remain keen. As the Pentagon pulls out its forces and equipment from Afghanistan,
it is setting up transit agreements with neighboring states to allow materiel to be transported across their territory back home. While the U.S. already has such agreements for cargo going into Afghanistan—the so-called Northern Distribution Network (NDN)—there are unique wrinkles with respect to cargo going out, requiring a new burst of U.S. diplomatic effort in Central Asia.
That will include efforts to prolong the presence of the U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan, formally called the Transit Center at Manas. Its primary mission is to host and process U.S. and NATO forces heading into and out of Afghanistan, and as such it will play a vital role in the pullout. U.S. officials are likely to lobby Kyrgyzstan hard to allow the base to stay, if only for a short time, past the expiration of the current agreement in July 2014.
In the longer term, however, Central Asia seems fated to decline in importance for the U.S. For years, U.S. government officials have described their policy in Central Asia as based on three pillars: energy, security and democracy. In each of those areas, however, it is becoming clear that, in the long run, Central Asia has little to offer the U.S.
Since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001, and especially since the U.S. refocused its attention there toward the end of the past decade, security has dominated U.S. relations with Central Asia. In addition to Manas, the U.S. maintained another air base in Uzbekistan until being kicked out in 2005. Keeping the NDN running smoothly has dominated U.S. regional diplomacy for the past few years. And the amount of aid to the region's militaries and other security forces has dramatically increased over the past decade.
But with the pullout from Afghanistan underway, it's not clear what security interest the U.S. will have in Central Asia after the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan concludes at the end of 2014. The circumstances that originally brought the U.S. to the region—a spectacular but in many ways lucky attack organized by a terrorist group temporarily based in Afghanistan—seems unlikely to be repeated. NATO membership for Central Asian countries is not in the cards, and efforts to build up military units to participate in U.S.-led military coalitions or United Nations peacekeeping efforts have been consistently frustrated.
Relatedly, the second pillar of U.S. policy in the region—energy—has declined in significance to the U.S. Since leading the construction in the late-1990s of oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea to Europe, the U.S. has had very little success in the region's pipeline politics. In fact, the most significant development in the regional energy picture has been the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China, and U.S. hopes that Turkmenistan would consent to a gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea to Europe have faded. Meanwhile, the estimates of the region's overall petroleum resources have declined from the optimistic projections of the 1990s. While the State Department had a special envoy for Eurasian energy for several years, when the last envoy left the position last year, it was left unfilled.
Finally, efforts by the U.S. as well as other countries to promote democracy and human rights in the region have failed. When Central Asian countries became independent in 1991, the hope was that they would join the political and geopolitical West. But two decades later autocrats are as entrenched as ever. The view of the region as “in transition” has begun to fade, as scholars and policymakers increasingly accept that the politics of the region are what they are and some Western democracy-promotion organizations quietly scale back their efforts.
As 2014 approaches, the U.S. has developed a new strategy for Central Asia, called the New Silk Road Initiative. The idea is that promoting regional and intercontinental trade through the region around Afghanistan will bring stability and prosperity. The policy— centered on transforming a violent, mountainous country with no roads into a transportation and trade hub—would be a long shot even with a huge effort. But two years after the policy was rolled out, it's not clear what has actually been done to implement it; the “initiative” seems to be little more than a talking point, a rhetorical fig leaf to make it appear that the U.S. is not abandoning the region after 2014.
One element that all of these policies have had in common is that they attempted, implicitly, to reduce Russian influence in Central Asia. In the 1990s, as Russia struggled with its internal problems, Central Asia seemed geopolitically ripe for the picking. But now a resurgent Russia has roared back and has been re-establishing its hold on the region, and correspondingly weakening the U.S. hand there. Indeed, Russian promises to help build a hydroelectric plant in Kyrgyzstan, as well as to forgive $500 million in debt, appeared to play a role in the Kyrgyz parliament's overwhelming 91-5 vote to pass the law annulling the Manas agreement. Meanwhile, China has been aggressively increasing its economic presence in Central Asia, eager both to develop the region’s resources and to preclude its use as a rear base for Uighur separatists. In that context, and without a compelling rationale for involvement, we may in the future see 2014 as the twilight of U.S. involvement in Central Asia.
Joshua Kucera is a freelance journalist specializing in Central Asia and the Caucasus. He blogs at the Bug Pit. You can follow him on twitter at @joshuakucera.
Photo: Cargo plane refuels at Manas International Airport, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (U.S. Air Force photo).
Read more: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/13113/as-afghanistan-war-draws-down-u-s-interest-in-central-asia-fades
____________
What do you think?
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
By Joshua Kucera, on 24 Jul 2013, Briefing
Photo: Cargo plane refuels at Manas International Airport, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (U.S. Air Force photo).
On June 26, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev formally signed a law “annulling” the country's agreement with the U.S. to host an air base in his country. The true significance of the law is unclear, and it could be a bargaining ploy to gain more favorable terms for a new agreement on the base, which has been the United States’ most conspicuous presence in Central Asia since being established shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Regardless, the passage of the law has highlighted how U.S. interest in Central Asia is destined to diminish as the U.S. extracts itself from Afghanistan. In the short term, U.S. interest in Central Asia will remain keen. As the Pentagon pulls out its forces and equipment from Afghanistan,
it is setting up transit agreements with neighboring states to allow materiel to be transported across their territory back home. While the U.S. already has such agreements for cargo going into Afghanistan—the so-called Northern Distribution Network (NDN)—there are unique wrinkles with respect to cargo going out, requiring a new burst of U.S. diplomatic effort in Central Asia.
That will include efforts to prolong the presence of the U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan, formally called the Transit Center at Manas. Its primary mission is to host and process U.S. and NATO forces heading into and out of Afghanistan, and as such it will play a vital role in the pullout. U.S. officials are likely to lobby Kyrgyzstan hard to allow the base to stay, if only for a short time, past the expiration of the current agreement in July 2014.
In the longer term, however, Central Asia seems fated to decline in importance for the U.S. For years, U.S. government officials have described their policy in Central Asia as based on three pillars: energy, security and democracy. In each of those areas, however, it is becoming clear that, in the long run, Central Asia has little to offer the U.S.
Since the war in Afghanistan began in 2001, and especially since the U.S. refocused its attention there toward the end of the past decade, security has dominated U.S. relations with Central Asia. In addition to Manas, the U.S. maintained another air base in Uzbekistan until being kicked out in 2005. Keeping the NDN running smoothly has dominated U.S. regional diplomacy for the past few years. And the amount of aid to the region's militaries and other security forces has dramatically increased over the past decade.
But with the pullout from Afghanistan underway, it's not clear what security interest the U.S. will have in Central Asia after the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan concludes at the end of 2014. The circumstances that originally brought the U.S. to the region—a spectacular but in many ways lucky attack organized by a terrorist group temporarily based in Afghanistan—seems unlikely to be repeated. NATO membership for Central Asian countries is not in the cards, and efforts to build up military units to participate in U.S.-led military coalitions or United Nations peacekeeping efforts have been consistently frustrated.
Relatedly, the second pillar of U.S. policy in the region—energy—has declined in significance to the U.S. Since leading the construction in the late-1990s of oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea to Europe, the U.S. has had very little success in the region's pipeline politics. In fact, the most significant development in the regional energy picture has been the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China, and U.S. hopes that Turkmenistan would consent to a gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea to Europe have faded. Meanwhile, the estimates of the region's overall petroleum resources have declined from the optimistic projections of the 1990s. While the State Department had a special envoy for Eurasian energy for several years, when the last envoy left the position last year, it was left unfilled.
Finally, efforts by the U.S. as well as other countries to promote democracy and human rights in the region have failed. When Central Asian countries became independent in 1991, the hope was that they would join the political and geopolitical West. But two decades later autocrats are as entrenched as ever. The view of the region as “in transition” has begun to fade, as scholars and policymakers increasingly accept that the politics of the region are what they are and some Western democracy-promotion organizations quietly scale back their efforts.
As 2014 approaches, the U.S. has developed a new strategy for Central Asia, called the New Silk Road Initiative. The idea is that promoting regional and intercontinental trade through the region around Afghanistan will bring stability and prosperity. The policy— centered on transforming a violent, mountainous country with no roads into a transportation and trade hub—would be a long shot even with a huge effort. But two years after the policy was rolled out, it's not clear what has actually been done to implement it; the “initiative” seems to be little more than a talking point, a rhetorical fig leaf to make it appear that the U.S. is not abandoning the region after 2014.
One element that all of these policies have had in common is that they attempted, implicitly, to reduce Russian influence in Central Asia. In the 1990s, as Russia struggled with its internal problems, Central Asia seemed geopolitically ripe for the picking. But now a resurgent Russia has roared back and has been re-establishing its hold on the region, and correspondingly weakening the U.S. hand there. Indeed, Russian promises to help build a hydroelectric plant in Kyrgyzstan, as well as to forgive $500 million in debt, appeared to play a role in the Kyrgyz parliament's overwhelming 91-5 vote to pass the law annulling the Manas agreement. Meanwhile, China has been aggressively increasing its economic presence in Central Asia, eager both to develop the region’s resources and to preclude its use as a rear base for Uighur separatists. In that context, and without a compelling rationale for involvement, we may in the future see 2014 as the twilight of U.S. involvement in Central Asia.
Joshua Kucera is a freelance journalist specializing in Central Asia and the Caucasus. He blogs at the Bug Pit. You can follow him on twitter at @joshuakucera.
Photo: Cargo plane refuels at Manas International Airport, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (U.S. Air Force photo).
Read more: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/13113/as-afghanistan-war-draws-down-u-s-interest-in-central-asia-fades
____________
What do you think?
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
WORLD_ United Nations May Fall Short in Food Aid for Syria
United Nations May Fall Short in Food Aid for Syria
By ERIN BANCO
Published: July 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — The United Nations’ food agency said Tuesday that it might not be able to meet its goal of aiding three million Syrians in July.
The agency, the World Food Program, had reached only 2.4 million people as fighting intensified in areas near Damascus and Homs, Elisabeth Byrs, the agency’s senior public information officer, said Tuesday in an interview.
“Dispatches of food are slower because of the situation right now,” Ms. Byrs said. Steve Taravella, a senior spokesman for the food agency in Washington, said that it had 700 trucks in the country, but that convoys had been unable to reach many distribution points in the past several weeks.
Eight trucks carrying more than 300 metric tons of flour were attacked in June — it was unclear by whom — in Deir al-Zour, in northeast Syria, and only four were able to distribute food. The flour was intended to go to 13,600 families, Mr. Taravella said, but the agency could distribute aid to only about 6,700 of them. On May 29, another armed group in the village of Tal Menes seized a truck carrying flour that was headed to Aleppo.
In June, the World Food Program provided about 2.5 million people with food inside Syria, aiding the greatest number of people in Aleppo. The group operates seven food warehouses and dozens of distribution points in Syria.
A typical food basket from the agency contains rice, bulgur, wheat, sugar, pasta, vegetable oil and lentils, according to the group’s Web site. The World Food Program also provides families with a monthly ration of 11 pounds of bread per person.
“We won’t know for a few weeks whether we will reach our goal,” Mr. Taravella said. “But we announced the findings because we want the humanitarian community to understand the scope of the need.”
Ms. Byrs said she was particularly worried about the people in Homs, where fighting has increased in the past several days. As of Monday, the agency had reached about 300,000 people there this month, but Ms. Byrs said she believed that more than 2,500 people were trapped in the Old City without access to any aid.
“The monthly distribution to Homs is still ongoing; 92 percent of the allocation has been dispatched, but the besieged areas of the Old City are out of reach for us,” she said. “We cannot reach them because of the military operation.”
International aid groups have had difficulty delivering supplies since the Syrian war began more than two years ago. At the start of the fighting, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was the only organization delivering aid and providing medical care to civilians. President Bashar al-Assad blocked all other groups from establishing operations.
Since then, organizations like the World Food Program and the United Nations Refugee Agency have found ways to deliver aid in rebel-held regions, but they still have difficulty reaching areas controlled by Mr. Assad’s government. And when aid does arrive there, it does not always go to those most in need.
“There are thousands of examples of this, where civilians are in need of care but have no access to it because the regime continues to take advantage of directing it only to supporters,” said Alexander Page, a Syrian activist living abroad.
Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, runs five hospitals in northern Syria in areas controlled by the rebels but has not received official authorization to work in the country. It said last month that a measles epidemic was sweeping through northern Syria and that its medical teams had vaccinated more than 75,000 children in Aleppo, Raqqah and Idlib Provinces. But the fighting has hampered the vaccination campaign, the group said in a statement. People have avoided standing in line for the vaccinations for fear they might attract airstrikes or rocket attacks, it said.
Ms. Byrs said it costs the World Food Program $29.3 million to $30 million each week to finance aid operations. The organization is seeking $763 million in contributions through the end of the year to help up to seven million Syrians, including four million people in Syria and almost three million refugees in neighboring countries.
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/world/middleeast/united-nations-may-fall-short-in-food-aid-for-syria.html?ref=syria&_r=0
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
By ERIN BANCO
Published: July 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — The United Nations’ food agency said Tuesday that it might not be able to meet its goal of aiding three million Syrians in July.
The agency, the World Food Program, had reached only 2.4 million people as fighting intensified in areas near Damascus and Homs, Elisabeth Byrs, the agency’s senior public information officer, said Tuesday in an interview.
“Dispatches of food are slower because of the situation right now,” Ms. Byrs said. Steve Taravella, a senior spokesman for the food agency in Washington, said that it had 700 trucks in the country, but that convoys had been unable to reach many distribution points in the past several weeks.
Eight trucks carrying more than 300 metric tons of flour were attacked in June — it was unclear by whom — in Deir al-Zour, in northeast Syria, and only four were able to distribute food. The flour was intended to go to 13,600 families, Mr. Taravella said, but the agency could distribute aid to only about 6,700 of them. On May 29, another armed group in the village of Tal Menes seized a truck carrying flour that was headed to Aleppo.
In June, the World Food Program provided about 2.5 million people with food inside Syria, aiding the greatest number of people in Aleppo. The group operates seven food warehouses and dozens of distribution points in Syria.
A typical food basket from the agency contains rice, bulgur, wheat, sugar, pasta, vegetable oil and lentils, according to the group’s Web site. The World Food Program also provides families with a monthly ration of 11 pounds of bread per person.
“We won’t know for a few weeks whether we will reach our goal,” Mr. Taravella said. “But we announced the findings because we want the humanitarian community to understand the scope of the need.”
Ms. Byrs said she was particularly worried about the people in Homs, where fighting has increased in the past several days. As of Monday, the agency had reached about 300,000 people there this month, but Ms. Byrs said she believed that more than 2,500 people were trapped in the Old City without access to any aid.
“The monthly distribution to Homs is still ongoing; 92 percent of the allocation has been dispatched, but the besieged areas of the Old City are out of reach for us,” she said. “We cannot reach them because of the military operation.”
International aid groups have had difficulty delivering supplies since the Syrian war began more than two years ago. At the start of the fighting, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent was the only organization delivering aid and providing medical care to civilians. President Bashar al-Assad blocked all other groups from establishing operations.
Since then, organizations like the World Food Program and the United Nations Refugee Agency have found ways to deliver aid in rebel-held regions, but they still have difficulty reaching areas controlled by Mr. Assad’s government. And when aid does arrive there, it does not always go to those most in need.
“There are thousands of examples of this, where civilians are in need of care but have no access to it because the regime continues to take advantage of directing it only to supporters,” said Alexander Page, a Syrian activist living abroad.
Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, runs five hospitals in northern Syria in areas controlled by the rebels but has not received official authorization to work in the country. It said last month that a measles epidemic was sweeping through northern Syria and that its medical teams had vaccinated more than 75,000 children in Aleppo, Raqqah and Idlib Provinces. But the fighting has hampered the vaccination campaign, the group said in a statement. People have avoided standing in line for the vaccinations for fear they might attract airstrikes or rocket attacks, it said.
Ms. Byrs said it costs the World Food Program $29.3 million to $30 million each week to finance aid operations. The organization is seeking $763 million in contributions through the end of the year to help up to seven million Syrians, including four million people in Syria and almost three million refugees in neighboring countries.
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/world/middleeast/united-nations-may-fall-short-in-food-aid-for-syria.html?ref=syria&_r=0
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
WORLD_ Iran grants Syria $3.6-bln oil credit line: SANA
Iran grants Syria $3.6-bln oil credit line: SANA
Published July 30, 2013
AFP
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Iran has agreed to supply Damascus with $3.6 billion in oil in exchange for the right to invest in the country, Syria's state news agency SANA said on Tuesday.
"An agreement was signed (on Monday) in Tehran... by the Iranian and Syrian central banks, granting Syria a credit line worth $3.6 billion," it reported.
The deal stipulates that Syria will pay back the cost of the oil loan "through Iranian investments of various kinds in Syria", said SANA.
It did not elaborate on what kind of investments Tehran would make.
Iran is the main regional backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime has fought for more than 28 months to crush a protest movement that morphed into a bloody insurgency after the army cracked down against dissent.
Oil production in Syria has crashed over the course of the country's war, which the United Nations says has killed more than 100,000 people.
Previously a small energy exporter, Syria is now forced to import oil and by-products, Oil Minister Sleiman Abbas said in May.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/30/iran-grants-syria-36-bln-oil-credit-line-sana/#ixzz2aZkzRWZk
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Published July 30, 2013
AFP
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Iran has agreed to supply Damascus with $3.6 billion in oil in exchange for the right to invest in the country, Syria's state news agency SANA said on Tuesday.
"An agreement was signed (on Monday) in Tehran... by the Iranian and Syrian central banks, granting Syria a credit line worth $3.6 billion," it reported.
The deal stipulates that Syria will pay back the cost of the oil loan "through Iranian investments of various kinds in Syria", said SANA.
It did not elaborate on what kind of investments Tehran would make.
Iran is the main regional backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime has fought for more than 28 months to crush a protest movement that morphed into a bloody insurgency after the army cracked down against dissent.
Oil production in Syria has crashed over the course of the country's war, which the United Nations says has killed more than 100,000 people.
Previously a small energy exporter, Syria is now forced to import oil and by-products, Oil Minister Sleiman Abbas said in May.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/30/iran-grants-syria-36-bln-oil-credit-line-sana/#ixzz2aZkzRWZk
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
DIRTY MONEY_ GHI SỔ THÊM TỘI ÁC và HÀNH VI BẨN THỈU của bọn chó ghẻ "vịt kiều yêu nước"
GHI SỔ THÊM TỘI ÁC và HÀNH VI BẨN THỈU của bọn chó ghẻ "vịt kiều yêu nước"
Hôm nay conbenho xin gởi đến Quý Anh Chị một bản tin tuy đã cũ nhưng conbenho vừa đọc được và mang vào conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog trong công việc "GHI SỔ THÊM TỘI ÁC và HÀNH VI BẨN THỈU của bọn chó ghẻ "vịt kiều yêu nước"" để người dân Việt chúng ta biết thêm tên tuổi của bọn chó ghẻ đầu trâu mặt ngựa làm tay sai cho bè lũ phản quốc cướp nước diệt chủng bán nước Việt gian thổ phỉ cộng sản Việt Nam , đời đời lưu xú .
Nguyên văn bản tin trong tiếng Anh , Quý Anh Chị nếu chưa có dịp đọc qua, cùng đọc để biết thêm .
***
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Nexus Technologies Inc. and Three Employees Plead Guilty to Paying Bribes to Vietnamese Officials
Company Agrees to Cease Operations and Dissolve
Nexus Technologies Inc., a Philadelphia-based export company, pleaded guilty today in connection with a conspiracy to bribe officials of the Vietnamese government in exchange for lucrative contracts to supply equipment and technology to Vietnamese government agencies, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Janice K. Fedarcyk, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office. The president and owner of the company, Nam Nguyen, and his siblings and fellow Nexus personnel, Kim Nguyen and An Nguyen, also pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Savage in connection with the conspiracy.
Nexus; Nam Nguyen, 54, of Houston and Vietnam; Kim Nguyen, 41, of Philadelphia; and An Nguyen, 34, of Philadelphia, were charged in a superseding indictment on Oct. 30, 2009, with conspiracy, violations of the FCPA, violations of the Travel Act in connection with commercial bribes and money laundering. Nexus pleaded guilty today to all the charges filed against the company in the superseding indictment. Nam and An Nguyen each pleaded guilty to conspiracy, a substantive FCPA violation, a violation of the Travel Act and money laundering. Kim Nguyen pleaded guilty to conspiracy, a substantive FCPA violation and money laundering. Former Nexus partner Joseph T. Lukas pleaded guilty on June 29, 2009, to conspiracy and to violating the FCPA.
According to court documents, Nexus was a privately-owned export company that identified U.S. vendors for contracts opened for bid by the Vietnamese government and other companies operating in Vietnam. The contracts allowed for the purchase of a wide variety of equipment and technology, including underwater mapping equipment, bomb containment equipment, helicopter parts, chemical detectors, satellite communication parts and air tracking systems. According to court documents, Nam Nguyen negotiated the contracts and bribes with the Vietnamese government agencies and employees. Kim Nguyen, vice president of Nexus, oversaw the U.S. operations and handled company finances. An Nguyen identified U.S. vendors to supply the goods needed to fulfill the contracts.
In connection with the guilty pleas, Nexus and the Nguyens admitted that from 1999 to 2008 they agreed to pay, and knowingly paid, bribes in excess of $250,000 to Vietnamese government officials in exchange for contracts with the agencies and companies for which the bribe recipients worked. The defendants admitted that the bribes were falsely described as "commissions" in the company’s records. In pleading guilty, Nexus also acknowledged that, as a company, it operated primarily through criminal means and agreed to cease operations as a condition of the guilty plea.
At sentencing, scheduled for July 13, 2010, Nexus faces a maximum fine of $27 million. Nam and An Nguyen each face a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison. Kim Nguyen faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Kathleen M Hamann of the Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The case was investigated by the Philadelphia and New Jersey field offices of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement.
10-270
Criminal Division
Read more: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/March/10-crm-270.html
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Hôm nay conbenho xin gởi đến Quý Anh Chị một bản tin tuy đã cũ nhưng conbenho vừa đọc được và mang vào conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog trong công việc "GHI SỔ THÊM TỘI ÁC và HÀNH VI BẨN THỈU của bọn chó ghẻ "vịt kiều yêu nước"" để người dân Việt chúng ta biết thêm tên tuổi của bọn chó ghẻ đầu trâu mặt ngựa làm tay sai cho bè lũ phản quốc cướp nước diệt chủng bán nước Việt gian thổ phỉ cộng sản Việt Nam , đời đời lưu xú .
Nguyên văn bản tin trong tiếng Anh , Quý Anh Chị nếu chưa có dịp đọc qua, cùng đọc để biết thêm .
***
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Nexus Technologies Inc. and Three Employees Plead Guilty to Paying Bribes to Vietnamese Officials
Company Agrees to Cease Operations and Dissolve
Nexus Technologies Inc., a Philadelphia-based export company, pleaded guilty today in connection with a conspiracy to bribe officials of the Vietnamese government in exchange for lucrative contracts to supply equipment and technology to Vietnamese government agencies, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Janice K. Fedarcyk, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office. The president and owner of the company, Nam Nguyen, and his siblings and fellow Nexus personnel, Kim Nguyen and An Nguyen, also pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Savage in connection with the conspiracy.
Nexus; Nam Nguyen, 54, of Houston and Vietnam; Kim Nguyen, 41, of Philadelphia; and An Nguyen, 34, of Philadelphia, were charged in a superseding indictment on Oct. 30, 2009, with conspiracy, violations of the FCPA, violations of the Travel Act in connection with commercial bribes and money laundering. Nexus pleaded guilty today to all the charges filed against the company in the superseding indictment. Nam and An Nguyen each pleaded guilty to conspiracy, a substantive FCPA violation, a violation of the Travel Act and money laundering. Kim Nguyen pleaded guilty to conspiracy, a substantive FCPA violation and money laundering. Former Nexus partner Joseph T. Lukas pleaded guilty on June 29, 2009, to conspiracy and to violating the FCPA.
According to court documents, Nexus was a privately-owned export company that identified U.S. vendors for contracts opened for bid by the Vietnamese government and other companies operating in Vietnam. The contracts allowed for the purchase of a wide variety of equipment and technology, including underwater mapping equipment, bomb containment equipment, helicopter parts, chemical detectors, satellite communication parts and air tracking systems. According to court documents, Nam Nguyen negotiated the contracts and bribes with the Vietnamese government agencies and employees. Kim Nguyen, vice president of Nexus, oversaw the U.S. operations and handled company finances. An Nguyen identified U.S. vendors to supply the goods needed to fulfill the contracts.
In connection with the guilty pleas, Nexus and the Nguyens admitted that from 1999 to 2008 they agreed to pay, and knowingly paid, bribes in excess of $250,000 to Vietnamese government officials in exchange for contracts with the agencies and companies for which the bribe recipients worked. The defendants admitted that the bribes were falsely described as "commissions" in the company’s records. In pleading guilty, Nexus also acknowledged that, as a company, it operated primarily through criminal means and agreed to cease operations as a condition of the guilty plea.
At sentencing, scheduled for July 13, 2010, Nexus faces a maximum fine of $27 million. Nam and An Nguyen each face a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison. Kim Nguyen faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Kathleen M Hamann of the Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The case was investigated by the Philadelphia and New Jersey field offices of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement.
10-270
Criminal Division
Read more: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/March/10-crm-270.html
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
WORLD_ SYRIA_ Car bomb kills Kurdish politician in northern Syria
30 July 2013 Last updated at 16:43 GMT
Car bomb kills Kurdish politician in northern Syria
BBC
A prominent Syrian Kurdish politician has been killed in a car bomb attack in Syria's north-eastern town of Qamishli, near the Turkish border, officials say.
Isa Huso was a member of the Supreme Kurdish Council, aimed at bringing together Syrian Kurdish groups, and an opponent of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria's main Kurdish militia later issued a call to arms to all Kurds to fight jihadists operating in the north.
It follows weeks of intense fighting between Kurds and jihadist groups.
Mr Huso was leaving his home in the border town when a bomb planted inside his car detonated, Kurdish political sources told Reuters news agency.
He was a member of the foreign relations committee in the Kurdish council, an umbrella group for regional Kurdish factions.
Isa Huso, 60, was described by Kurdish activists as a moderate.
He had reportedly been imprisoned several times under Mr Assad's rule for campaigning against human rights abuses.
'Targeting Kurds as Kurds'
"Huso sought to promote Kurdish rights within a united Syria free from the grip of the Assad regime," his former neighbour, Massoud Akko, told Reuters news agency.
"No-one knows who killed him but the fingers point to the militant Islamists. They are the only ones who are targeting Kurds as Kurds," he added.
Responding to Huso's killing, Kurdish fighters known as the Popular Protection Units (YPG) issued a call to arms.
"(The YPG) called on all those fit to carry weapons to join their ranks, to protect areas under their control from attacks by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) fighters, Al-Nusra Front and other battalions," a London-based Syria watchdog, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
The YPG, which claims to have no political affiliations, was set up to counter offensives in majority Kurdish areas.
In recent months it has been battling to drive out rebels from the north, including the al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front.
Areas near the Turkish border have seen some of the most intense fighting, with clashes reported between the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and the Al-Nusra Front in the town of Ras al-Ain.
Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority has faced decades of discrimination and marginalisation under Assad rule, with Syrian Kurds staging their own anti-government protests after the Syria conflict began in March 2011.
Responding to a wave of protests in 2011, the Assad administration decreed a number of concessions, granting Kurds in the eastern Hasaka region Syrian nationality.
In mid-2012, Assad's forces withdrew from majority Kurdish areas, leaving Kurdish militia in charge of security there.
The Kurds make up a little over 10% of the population and are largely concentrated in north-eastern Syria, towards the Turkish border.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Car bomb kills Kurdish politician in northern Syria
BBC
A prominent Syrian Kurdish politician has been killed in a car bomb attack in Syria's north-eastern town of Qamishli, near the Turkish border, officials say.
Isa Huso was a member of the Supreme Kurdish Council, aimed at bringing together Syrian Kurdish groups, and an opponent of President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria's main Kurdish militia later issued a call to arms to all Kurds to fight jihadists operating in the north.
It follows weeks of intense fighting between Kurds and jihadist groups.
Mr Huso was leaving his home in the border town when a bomb planted inside his car detonated, Kurdish political sources told Reuters news agency.
He was a member of the foreign relations committee in the Kurdish council, an umbrella group for regional Kurdish factions.
Isa Huso, 60, was described by Kurdish activists as a moderate.
He had reportedly been imprisoned several times under Mr Assad's rule for campaigning against human rights abuses.
'Targeting Kurds as Kurds'
"Huso sought to promote Kurdish rights within a united Syria free from the grip of the Assad regime," his former neighbour, Massoud Akko, told Reuters news agency.
"No-one knows who killed him but the fingers point to the militant Islamists. They are the only ones who are targeting Kurds as Kurds," he added.
Responding to Huso's killing, Kurdish fighters known as the Popular Protection Units (YPG) issued a call to arms.
"(The YPG) called on all those fit to carry weapons to join their ranks, to protect areas under their control from attacks by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) fighters, Al-Nusra Front and other battalions," a London-based Syria watchdog, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
The YPG, which claims to have no political affiliations, was set up to counter offensives in majority Kurdish areas.
In recent months it has been battling to drive out rebels from the north, including the al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front.
Areas near the Turkish border have seen some of the most intense fighting, with clashes reported between the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and the Al-Nusra Front in the town of Ras al-Ain.
Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority has faced decades of discrimination and marginalisation under Assad rule, with Syrian Kurds staging their own anti-government protests after the Syria conflict began in March 2011.
Responding to a wave of protests in 2011, the Assad administration decreed a number of concessions, granting Kurds in the eastern Hasaka region Syrian nationality.
In mid-2012, Assad's forces withdrew from majority Kurdish areas, leaving Kurdish militia in charge of security there.
The Kurds make up a little over 10% of the population and are largely concentrated in north-eastern Syria, towards the Turkish border.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
WORLD_ SYRIA_ Air raids kill 17 in Syria's Aleppo, Homs
Air raids kill 17 in Syria's Aleppo, Homs
AAP
July 31, 2013 4:04AM
SEVEN children in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo and another four in Homs are among 17 civilians killed in air raids, a watchdog says.
Tuesday's deaths in Homs come as troops pressed an offensive against remaining rebel areas there, while in Aleppo province, the raid comes exactly a year into the rebel takeover of the targeted town of Anadan.
Meanwhile, Islamist rebels downed a military helicopter with a ground-to-air missile near Damascus airport and a car bomb killed a leading Kurdish politician in the northeast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The number of people killed in a regime air raid on Anadan has risen to seven children and three women," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Activists and the Observatory said the strike targeted a mosque in Anadan, where the women and children were attending a religious studies class.
"The strike comes exactly a year on from the day rebels took control of Anadan," said the Observatory.
Earlier on Tuesday, a family of seven that had fled the army's recapture of Khaldiyeh in Homs city was also killed in a raid.
Four children were among the dead in the bombardment of Teir Maaleh village, the Britain-based Observatory said.
Elsewhere, Islamist rebels used a "sophisticated" ground-to-air missile to down the helicopter near Damascus International Airport, the watchdog added.
Rebels say they have received supplies of anti-aircraft weapons in recent weeks from friendly governments that are keen to help them counter the air superiority of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Outside Damascus, 10 rebels were killed in fighting in the Moadamiyet al-Sham area, over which the army is trying to restore control, the Observatory said.
Eissa Hasso, a leading member of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), Syria's biggest Kurdish group, was killed by a car bomb in the northeastern city of Qamishli, hard by the Turkish border.
"It is unclear whether he was assassinated by the regime, the Islamists or by a foreign intelligence agency," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Kurdish fighters have been fighting in the north and northeast with jihadists they have been trying to evict from Kurdish majority areas.
PYD leader Saleh Muslim was in Istanbul on Friday for talks with Turkish officials aimed at allaying concerns the group - which has close links with Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party - is aiming for long-term autonomy inside Syria.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/air-raids-kill-17-in-syrias-aleppo-homs/story-e6frfkui-1226688449005#ixzz2aYxjZX6J
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
AAP
July 31, 2013 4:04AM
SEVEN children in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo and another four in Homs are among 17 civilians killed in air raids, a watchdog says.
Tuesday's deaths in Homs come as troops pressed an offensive against remaining rebel areas there, while in Aleppo province, the raid comes exactly a year into the rebel takeover of the targeted town of Anadan.
Meanwhile, Islamist rebels downed a military helicopter with a ground-to-air missile near Damascus airport and a car bomb killed a leading Kurdish politician in the northeast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The number of people killed in a regime air raid on Anadan has risen to seven children and three women," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Activists and the Observatory said the strike targeted a mosque in Anadan, where the women and children were attending a religious studies class.
"The strike comes exactly a year on from the day rebels took control of Anadan," said the Observatory.
Earlier on Tuesday, a family of seven that had fled the army's recapture of Khaldiyeh in Homs city was also killed in a raid.
Four children were among the dead in the bombardment of Teir Maaleh village, the Britain-based Observatory said.
Elsewhere, Islamist rebels used a "sophisticated" ground-to-air missile to down the helicopter near Damascus International Airport, the watchdog added.
Rebels say they have received supplies of anti-aircraft weapons in recent weeks from friendly governments that are keen to help them counter the air superiority of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Outside Damascus, 10 rebels were killed in fighting in the Moadamiyet al-Sham area, over which the army is trying to restore control, the Observatory said.
Eissa Hasso, a leading member of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), Syria's biggest Kurdish group, was killed by a car bomb in the northeastern city of Qamishli, hard by the Turkish border.
"It is unclear whether he was assassinated by the regime, the Islamists or by a foreign intelligence agency," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Kurdish fighters have been fighting in the north and northeast with jihadists they have been trying to evict from Kurdish majority areas.
PYD leader Saleh Muslim was in Istanbul on Friday for talks with Turkish officials aimed at allaying concerns the group - which has close links with Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party - is aiming for long-term autonomy inside Syria.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/air-raids-kill-17-in-syrias-aleppo-homs/story-e6frfkui-1226688449005#ixzz2aYxjZX6J
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
31072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
WORLD_ SYRIA_ After Khalidiya, Syria conflict goes onBy Paul Wood
29 July 2013 Last updated at 17:34 GMT
After Khalidiya, Syria conflict goes onBy Paul Wood
BBC News, Beirut
Government and opposition sources are not quite yet in agreement on what is happening in Khalidiya.
Syrian state TV began reporting on Sunday night that this opposition enclave of Homs, held by the rebels since the summer of 2011, had fallen.
Activists and fighters in Homs denied it, saying the government had made big gains but there were still pockets of fighters hanging on.
Later though, one opposition source said the enclave was "80% gone", while another said that fighters had been pushed to the margins.
Hardly any activists or fighters in Khalidiya are active on Skype now - another sign that the retreat may have happened or is at least under way.
Offensive
The fall of Khalidiya had been expected. One Western diplomat said he had been told recently by a rebel Free Syrian Army commander that it was not possible to get any ammunition or other supplies in. Cut off from help, it was only a matter of time, perhaps, for the rebels.
An Islamist brigade of the FSA posted video on YouTube of fighters wearing suicide belts. With no bullets left, this was their only weapon, they declared.
There are other parts of Homs still, just, in rebel hands. But if they, along with Khalidiya, do fall, Homs will become just the latest in a line of regime victories on the battlefield.
The regime's forces have been steadily picking off some of the villages around Homs.
Two months ago, with the help of the militant Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, they recaptured the nearby town of Qusair.
The government has halted - if not quite turned around - a rebel advance into the capital, Damascus.
Sources close to the Syrian regime say an offensive is also planned for the northern city of Aleppo. Certainly, the FSA is bracing itself for an assault on rebel-held parts of the city.
'Secure area'
Some analysts are already speculating that this is the beginning of the end of the armed rebellion.
Western diplomats dealing with the armed opposition believe the government may be able to establish a "secure area" running from Damascus all the way up to Hama, a city 45km (28 miles) to the north of Homs, or even to Aleppo.
What happens now may depend on the extent of foreign intervention.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been sending weapons to the FSA for some time. The US is moving towards sending small arms. The UK is contemplating such a step, but would only do so after a vote in Parliament.
It would probably take a very large influx of weapons to break the government's momentum.
However, that does not mean that the armed uprising will be extinguished. President Bashar al-Assad has had to use his own foreign fighters, from Hezbollah, to pursue his offensive.
He does not have enough loyal manpower to chase the rebels into the countryside, the mountains and the deserts.
Even if the government takes back the big cities and the main roads, Syria will remain divided, the conflict far from over.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
30072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
After Khalidiya, Syria conflict goes onBy Paul Wood
BBC News, Beirut
Government and opposition sources are not quite yet in agreement on what is happening in Khalidiya.
Syrian state TV began reporting on Sunday night that this opposition enclave of Homs, held by the rebels since the summer of 2011, had fallen.
Activists and fighters in Homs denied it, saying the government had made big gains but there were still pockets of fighters hanging on.
Later though, one opposition source said the enclave was "80% gone", while another said that fighters had been pushed to the margins.
Hardly any activists or fighters in Khalidiya are active on Skype now - another sign that the retreat may have happened or is at least under way.
Offensive
The fall of Khalidiya had been expected. One Western diplomat said he had been told recently by a rebel Free Syrian Army commander that it was not possible to get any ammunition or other supplies in. Cut off from help, it was only a matter of time, perhaps, for the rebels.
An Islamist brigade of the FSA posted video on YouTube of fighters wearing suicide belts. With no bullets left, this was their only weapon, they declared.
There are other parts of Homs still, just, in rebel hands. But if they, along with Khalidiya, do fall, Homs will become just the latest in a line of regime victories on the battlefield.
The regime's forces have been steadily picking off some of the villages around Homs.
Two months ago, with the help of the militant Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, they recaptured the nearby town of Qusair.
The government has halted - if not quite turned around - a rebel advance into the capital, Damascus.
Sources close to the Syrian regime say an offensive is also planned for the northern city of Aleppo. Certainly, the FSA is bracing itself for an assault on rebel-held parts of the city.
'Secure area'
Some analysts are already speculating that this is the beginning of the end of the armed rebellion.
Western diplomats dealing with the armed opposition believe the government may be able to establish a "secure area" running from Damascus all the way up to Hama, a city 45km (28 miles) to the north of Homs, or even to Aleppo.
What happens now may depend on the extent of foreign intervention.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been sending weapons to the FSA for some time. The US is moving towards sending small arms. The UK is contemplating such a step, but would only do so after a vote in Parliament.
It would probably take a very large influx of weapons to break the government's momentum.
However, that does not mean that the armed uprising will be extinguished. President Bashar al-Assad has had to use his own foreign fighters, from Hezbollah, to pursue his offensive.
He does not have enough loyal manpower to chase the rebels into the countryside, the mountains and the deserts.
Even if the government takes back the big cities and the main roads, Syria will remain divided, the conflict far from over.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
30072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Monday, July 29, 2013
WORLD_ Syria missile strike kills 19 children
Syria missile strike kills 19 children
At least 29 people, mostly children, died in a regime missile strike on the Syrian city of Aleppo, a watchdog said, as Hizbollah-backed regime forces advanced in flashpoint Homs.
Residents rummage through the damage and debris left of their homes for their belongings after what activists said was an air attack from forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad in Bab Neirab, Aleppo. Photo: REUTERS
By AFP
9:51PM BST 27 Jul 2013
Nineteen children were among the 29 killed in the northern city’s Bab Nairab neighbourhood “in a surface-to-surface missile strike by regime forces” on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitoring group relies on a wide network of medics and activists on the ground.
A militant group said the toll could rise as rescue operations were still under way on Saturday.
The Observatory said the army was targeting rebel headquarters, including a base of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), in Bab Nairab. “But the missile fell dozens of metres (yards) away,” it said.
“My whole family was wiped out, my whole family,” a boy in tears said near the rubble of his home, in a video posted by the Observatory.
Related Articles
_ UN reaches accord on inquiry into chemical weapon use in Syria - 27 Jul 2013
_ Syria civil war death toll passes 100,000 people - 25 Jul 2013
_ Face the truth about Assad: he’s not going - 25 Jul 2013
On the battlefield in central Syria, Hizbollah-backed regime forces gained ground in the Khaldiyeh district in Homs after ousting rebels in fierce clashes in the flashpoint city, the Observatory said.
Regime forces now control “60 per cent of Khaldiyeh,” the Observatory said, and also captured the Khaled bin Walid mosque.
State television quoted a military source as saying that regime forces were in control of all the area around the mosque.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP of “continuous heavy mortar and artillery fire” overnight Friday and that the Khaldiyeh district was still being pounded.
Rebels were putting up “fierce resistance” amid “very intense clashes”. Militant network the Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) also reported heavy fighting in the district, which has been besieged by regime forces for more than a year.
“Khaldiyeh is being targeted by an uninterrupted heavy bombardment, and on the ground there is fierce fighting between (rebel) Free Syrian Army fighters and regime forces backed by Lebanon’s Hizbollah trying to take the district,” a statement said.
Syria’s official press said the army was now back in control of most of Khaldiyeh, while an activist on the ground told AFP that the sector was being shelled “day and night”.
The SRGC and the Observatory both said the Old City district of Homs – dubbed the “capital of the revolution” against President Bashar al-Assad – was being pummelled too.
The latest regime offensive on besieged rebel-held neighbourhoods of Homs is now in its fourth week.
Government forces are seeking to secure another victory like the one in Qusayr near the border with Lebanon in June, when the Shiite militant group Hizbollah was key in retaking the strategic town.
Hizbollah, the strongest military force in Lebanon and a staunch ally of the Assad regime, has had its military wing blacklisted by the European Union as a terrorist group.
The 28-month-old civil war in Syria has killed a total of more than 100,000 people and left million of refugees, without any peace settlement in sight.
In New York, a UN spokeswoman said the world body’s chief Ban Ki-moon is to review an accord struck with Syria on investigating the use of chemical weapons before any details are announced.
Ban will meet in New York on Monday with the two envoys who struck the accord, spokeswoman Morana Song told AFP.
The United Nations and Syrian government announced in a joint statement issued late Friday that an accord had been reached “on the way forward” in the investigation, following a Damascus visit this week by two UN envoys.
Edited by Steve Wilson
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
30072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
At least 29 people, mostly children, died in a regime missile strike on the Syrian city of Aleppo, a watchdog said, as Hizbollah-backed regime forces advanced in flashpoint Homs.
Residents rummage through the damage and debris left of their homes for their belongings after what activists said was an air attack from forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad in Bab Neirab, Aleppo. Photo: REUTERS
By AFP
9:51PM BST 27 Jul 2013
Nineteen children were among the 29 killed in the northern city’s Bab Nairab neighbourhood “in a surface-to-surface missile strike by regime forces” on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitoring group relies on a wide network of medics and activists on the ground.
A militant group said the toll could rise as rescue operations were still under way on Saturday.
The Observatory said the army was targeting rebel headquarters, including a base of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), in Bab Nairab. “But the missile fell dozens of metres (yards) away,” it said.
“My whole family was wiped out, my whole family,” a boy in tears said near the rubble of his home, in a video posted by the Observatory.
Related Articles
_ UN reaches accord on inquiry into chemical weapon use in Syria - 27 Jul 2013
_ Syria civil war death toll passes 100,000 people - 25 Jul 2013
_ Face the truth about Assad: he’s not going - 25 Jul 2013
On the battlefield in central Syria, Hizbollah-backed regime forces gained ground in the Khaldiyeh district in Homs after ousting rebels in fierce clashes in the flashpoint city, the Observatory said.
Regime forces now control “60 per cent of Khaldiyeh,” the Observatory said, and also captured the Khaled bin Walid mosque.
State television quoted a military source as saying that regime forces were in control of all the area around the mosque.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP of “continuous heavy mortar and artillery fire” overnight Friday and that the Khaldiyeh district was still being pounded.
Rebels were putting up “fierce resistance” amid “very intense clashes”. Militant network the Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) also reported heavy fighting in the district, which has been besieged by regime forces for more than a year.
“Khaldiyeh is being targeted by an uninterrupted heavy bombardment, and on the ground there is fierce fighting between (rebel) Free Syrian Army fighters and regime forces backed by Lebanon’s Hizbollah trying to take the district,” a statement said.
Syria’s official press said the army was now back in control of most of Khaldiyeh, while an activist on the ground told AFP that the sector was being shelled “day and night”.
The SRGC and the Observatory both said the Old City district of Homs – dubbed the “capital of the revolution” against President Bashar al-Assad – was being pummelled too.
The latest regime offensive on besieged rebel-held neighbourhoods of Homs is now in its fourth week.
Government forces are seeking to secure another victory like the one in Qusayr near the border with Lebanon in June, when the Shiite militant group Hizbollah was key in retaking the strategic town.
Hizbollah, the strongest military force in Lebanon and a staunch ally of the Assad regime, has had its military wing blacklisted by the European Union as a terrorist group.
The 28-month-old civil war in Syria has killed a total of more than 100,000 people and left million of refugees, without any peace settlement in sight.
In New York, a UN spokeswoman said the world body’s chief Ban Ki-moon is to review an accord struck with Syria on investigating the use of chemical weapons before any details are announced.
Ban will meet in New York on Monday with the two envoys who struck the accord, spokeswoman Morana Song told AFP.
The United Nations and Syrian government announced in a joint statement issued late Friday that an accord had been reached “on the way forward” in the investigation, following a Damascus visit this week by two UN envoys.
Edited by Steve Wilson
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
30072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Sunday, July 28, 2013
WORLD_ Syrian Opposition Leader Says He Would Meet Assad Officials
Syrian Opposition Leader Says He Would Meet Assad Officials
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: July 28, 2013
The new head of the main Syrian exile opposition group says he is prepared to attend a peace conference in Geneva with representatives of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria without preconditions.
But the group’s new president, Ahmad al-Jarba, said in an interview in New York on Saturday that he wanted assurances that there would be a deadline for making progress.
“We believe there should be a precise time frame,” Mr. Jarba said. “The regime is used to manipulating the process and wasting time.”
Mr. Jarba, who met last week with Secretary of State John Kerry, said that he would not propose a specific deadline until the talks are closer at hand. But Burhan Ghalioun, a Syrian opposition member who participated in the meeting with Mr. Kerry, said that the opposition believes “Geneva must accomplish something in the first six months.”
Asked about Mr. Jarba’s comments, senior American officials said there was agreement in the meeting with Mr. Kerry that the goal of Geneva would be to pursue a political solution as quickly as possible, but “there was not a time frame set.”
With the death toll among both sides in Syria exceeding 100,000, Mr. Kerry has continued to press for an international conference in Geneva, a proposal that is facing formidable obstacles, including Russia’s insistence that Iranian officials attend.
Many experts have argued that if the talks are ever convened they are unlikely to make headway in the near term, as Mr. Assad, drawing on arms from Russia and Iran, appears to have the upper hand in the fighting and no interest in yielding power.
Still, American officials have argued that it is important for the opposition to attend the conference to maintain Western support, and because they hope the forum might eventually provide a framework for an agreement to establish a post-Assad transitional government, although it could take months — and perhaps years. Sitting down with representatives of the Assad government, however, remains a delicate issue for the group, which understands that its cooperation on the political front strengthens its appeals for Western military support, but which is also striving to build up its credibility within Syria. That task, opposition officials worry, will be all the more difficult if the city of Homs falls to Mr. Assad’s forces or if the Syrian military is pounding the rebels with artillery, airstrikes and rockets while talks drag on.
“We will lose all credibility if the regime draws us into three or four years of talks, which have no substance,” Mr. Ghalioun said.
Mr. Jarba called the military situation in Homs “extremely difficult,” but “not impossible.”
A leader of the Shammar tribe, which has branches in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Mr. Jarba, 44, was trained as a lawyer and has construction, real estate and other business interests in the Persian Gulf. Twice imprisoned by Mr. Assad, he made his first visit to the United States last week to attend a closed session of the United Nations Security Council. He met on Thursday with Mr. Kerry in New York.
On July 6, Mr. Jarba, with the support of Saudi Arabia, was elected by a narrow margin as president of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, also known as the Syrian National Coalition. Saudi Arabia is one of the main backers of the resistance, which has been vying for influence with Qatar. Mr. Jarba insisted, however, that he had strong ties with ruling families throughout the Persian Gulf.
Discussing his plans to govern areas that had been wrested from Syrian government control, Mr. Jarba acknowledged that Shariah courts had been set up by Islamist rebels but said his goal was to replace them with civil courts. While saying there were no preconditions for attending the Geneva talks, Mr. Jarba said that the opposition was asking that the Assad government take "positive steps," including the release of prisoners, that the coalition could present to the Syrian public to show that attending the talks was worthwhile.
Mr. Ghalioun said the opposition had told Mr. Kerry in their meeting that such steps also needed to include an end to artillery attacks, airstrikes and missile launches by the government forces.
That, he said, prompted Mr. Kerry to ask what the resistance might do in return, an important question as the opposition coalition does not control all the rebel groups, especially extremist factions like the Al Nusra Front.
Mr. Ghalioun quipped that the opposition would renounce the use of chemical weapons, which American officials say the rebels neither possess nor can access.
Mr. Jarba said that Mr. Kerry had mentioned that the opposition could put Mr. Assad on the defensive politically by attending the talks. But Mr. Jarba said he had little confidence that the Geneva talks would yield a breakthrough.
“I believe Geneva might happen," he said. “But will it produce a political solution? This is the question. I am not overwhelmingly optimistic because I know how this regime thinks.”
A version of this article appeared in print on July 29, 2013, on page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: Syrian Opposition Leader Says He Would Meet Assad Officials .
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
29072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: July 28, 2013
The new head of the main Syrian exile opposition group says he is prepared to attend a peace conference in Geneva with representatives of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria without preconditions.
But the group’s new president, Ahmad al-Jarba, said in an interview in New York on Saturday that he wanted assurances that there would be a deadline for making progress.
“We believe there should be a precise time frame,” Mr. Jarba said. “The regime is used to manipulating the process and wasting time.”
Mr. Jarba, who met last week with Secretary of State John Kerry, said that he would not propose a specific deadline until the talks are closer at hand. But Burhan Ghalioun, a Syrian opposition member who participated in the meeting with Mr. Kerry, said that the opposition believes “Geneva must accomplish something in the first six months.”
Asked about Mr. Jarba’s comments, senior American officials said there was agreement in the meeting with Mr. Kerry that the goal of Geneva would be to pursue a political solution as quickly as possible, but “there was not a time frame set.”
With the death toll among both sides in Syria exceeding 100,000, Mr. Kerry has continued to press for an international conference in Geneva, a proposal that is facing formidable obstacles, including Russia’s insistence that Iranian officials attend.
Many experts have argued that if the talks are ever convened they are unlikely to make headway in the near term, as Mr. Assad, drawing on arms from Russia and Iran, appears to have the upper hand in the fighting and no interest in yielding power.
Still, American officials have argued that it is important for the opposition to attend the conference to maintain Western support, and because they hope the forum might eventually provide a framework for an agreement to establish a post-Assad transitional government, although it could take months — and perhaps years. Sitting down with representatives of the Assad government, however, remains a delicate issue for the group, which understands that its cooperation on the political front strengthens its appeals for Western military support, but which is also striving to build up its credibility within Syria. That task, opposition officials worry, will be all the more difficult if the city of Homs falls to Mr. Assad’s forces or if the Syrian military is pounding the rebels with artillery, airstrikes and rockets while talks drag on.
“We will lose all credibility if the regime draws us into three or four years of talks, which have no substance,” Mr. Ghalioun said.
Mr. Jarba called the military situation in Homs “extremely difficult,” but “not impossible.”
A leader of the Shammar tribe, which has branches in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Mr. Jarba, 44, was trained as a lawyer and has construction, real estate and other business interests in the Persian Gulf. Twice imprisoned by Mr. Assad, he made his first visit to the United States last week to attend a closed session of the United Nations Security Council. He met on Thursday with Mr. Kerry in New York.
On July 6, Mr. Jarba, with the support of Saudi Arabia, was elected by a narrow margin as president of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, also known as the Syrian National Coalition. Saudi Arabia is one of the main backers of the resistance, which has been vying for influence with Qatar. Mr. Jarba insisted, however, that he had strong ties with ruling families throughout the Persian Gulf.
Discussing his plans to govern areas that had been wrested from Syrian government control, Mr. Jarba acknowledged that Shariah courts had been set up by Islamist rebels but said his goal was to replace them with civil courts. While saying there were no preconditions for attending the Geneva talks, Mr. Jarba said that the opposition was asking that the Assad government take "positive steps," including the release of prisoners, that the coalition could present to the Syrian public to show that attending the talks was worthwhile.
Mr. Ghalioun said the opposition had told Mr. Kerry in their meeting that such steps also needed to include an end to artillery attacks, airstrikes and missile launches by the government forces.
That, he said, prompted Mr. Kerry to ask what the resistance might do in return, an important question as the opposition coalition does not control all the rebel groups, especially extremist factions like the Al Nusra Front.
Mr. Ghalioun quipped that the opposition would renounce the use of chemical weapons, which American officials say the rebels neither possess nor can access.
Mr. Jarba said that Mr. Kerry had mentioned that the opposition could put Mr. Assad on the defensive politically by attending the talks. But Mr. Jarba said he had little confidence that the Geneva talks would yield a breakthrough.
“I believe Geneva might happen," he said. “But will it produce a political solution? This is the question. I am not overwhelmingly optimistic because I know how this regime thinks.”
A version of this article appeared in print on July 29, 2013, on page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: Syrian Opposition Leader Says He Would Meet Assad Officials .
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
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ANALYSIS_ Analysis: Who's backing who as Syria's civil war threatens to spread
Analysis: Who's backing who as Syria's civil war threatens to spread
NBC NEWS
13 hours ago
Daniel Leal Olivas / AFP - Getty Images
A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country
By Mandy Clark and Paul Nassar, NBC News
News analysis
Syria’s two-year civil war has claimed more than 100,000 lives and sent at least 1.7 million refugees spilling across its borders.
It has already affected neighboring countries, and now threatens to drag in the United States.
What began as a popular movement, demanding the removal of autocratic President Bashar Assad, has become an increasingly sectarian conflict.
About three-quarters of Syria's Muslims are from the Sunni sect. However, the Assad dynasty, which has ruled the country since 1970, is from the minority Alawite sect which is close to Shiite Islam.
The sectarian divide is important because it lies at the root of instability not only within Syria but also in Iraq and other pockets of the Middle East.
ASSAD’S FRIENDS
Iran
The Islamic Republic of Iran - a Shiite Muslim regional power - is a staunch ally of the Assad government and has been providing arms, military training and cash. If Assad falls, Iran will be deeply wounded.
Defense think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) sees the Syria conflict as part of a regional power struggle.
“It is increasingly clear that the world is confronting a crisis that extends far beyond Syria, threatening to deteriorate into a regional conflict,” a recent briefing paper outlined. “Now part civil, part proxy, it has also become a great power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.”
Iraq
After American troops toppled Sunni Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq’s Shiite majority became dominant. With this shift came regional alliances with Shiite countries including Iran and Syria.
Iraq provides a helping hand to the Assad regime by allowing Iranian arms and fighters to cross into Syria from Iraq, according to Secretary of State John Kerry. It also allows vital resupply flights from Iran to cross its airspace.
But this support is not without its costs: Violence is slipping across the border into Iraq and inflaming existing tensions. Deadly attacks are growing in Iraq, with the number of deaths due to violence back up at 2008 levels.
RUSI warns that if the Syria conflict continues, “the most important casualty of war is potentially Iraq.”
Russia
Russia is the Syrian government’s most powerful foreign backer and has stuck its neck out to support Assad’s crackdown.
It is helping the regime with weapons and even supports the growing involvement of Lebanese militia, Hezbollah. It is also reportedly helping Syria’s elite get around international financial sanctions, and has been protecting the regime from U.N. sanctions by using its veto power in the Security Council.
One theory for why Russia has been so resolute in its backing of Damascus is to ensure continued control of its only Mediterranean naval base, which is in the Syrian port of Tartus.
Russia has also invoked the specter of Islamic extremism in Syria, saying that Alawite Assad is fighting Sunni Muslim radicals.
ASSAD’S FOES
Saudi Arabia The kingdom is the Syria opposition’s main backer, along with smaller Gulf state of Qatar, and has been sending billions in humanitarian aid and weapons to Syrian rebels.
It is providing advanced weaponry, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles that it hopes will tip the balance for the rebels.
It is a follower of the strict Wahabi branch of Sunni Islam. In backing anti-Assad forces, Saudi Arabia is challenging its main regional foe, Shiite Iran. Some experts believe the Sunni-Shiite divisions are being exaggerated for political reasons.
“Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been willing to use sectarian language to make the Syrian conflict seem like a widespread attack on the Sunni population,” according to Chris Phillips, a lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London. “It’s part of a regional cold war with Iran on the battlefield of Syria.”
Qatar
The small kingdom may exist in the shadow of neighbor Saudi Arabia, but it has big money and ambitions. It has been backing the rebels with humanitarian aid as well as arms, and is has been seeking a more prominent role in the region, offering to host peace talks in its capital, Doha.
Like Saudi Arabia, it is a follower of the strict Wahabi branch of Sunni Islam.
United States
While the American government has supported anti-Assad forces with non-lethal assistance such as training, body armor, communications equipment and food aid, it has deep misgivings over whether to become more involved in the conflict.
Still smarting from unpopular interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. faces fears that deeper engagement in Syria will embroil it in yet another hard-to-exit regional conflict. There are also widespread concerns that American weapons will fall into the hands of radical al Qaeda-linked groups fighting with the rebels.
“Once we take action, we should be prepared for what comes next,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said in a letter to Congress. “Deeper involvement is hard to avoid.”
Until June, the administration was opposed to providing any lethal assistance to Syria's rebels, but in June it said it was moving ahead with sending weapons to vetted members of the opposition.
Turkey
Formerly a close friend of Syria, Turkey’s moderate Islamist government has become a supporter of the rebels and supplying them with arms, security sources and diplomats say, according to Reuters. Officials also look the other way as rebels use the long and porous border as a resupply route.
At Turkey’s request, NATO has installed Patriot missile defenses on the border to protect it from spillover from the war in Syria. The move was aimed at calming Turkey's fears that it could come under attack from Syria.
Turkey also houses 500,000 Syrians in towns and relatively well-equipped refugee camps on the long border with Syria. There is growing anger in Turkey against the newcomers, though, especially after a bombing in the border town of Reyhanli killed more than 50 people.
France
France, the former colonial power in Syria, was the first Western power to join the anti-Assad camp and has been pushing for a more committed international effort to help the rebels.
It is increasingly concerned that Syrian rebels are losing ground and has suggested it will boost shipments of technical, medical and humanitarian aid to the rebels, but declined request for weapons and ammunition.
CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE
Lebanon
Schisms in Syria are mirrored in its tiny neighbor Lebanon, which is a mosaic of religious communities, each with their own allegiances.
Christian and Sunni Muslim communities strongly oppose Assad’s regime, remembering the oppression of the 30-year Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
On the other side is Hezbollah. Of all the regional players, the powerful Shiite militia that controls much of Lebanon - and forms part of the government - may have the most at stake in the civil war. Should Assad fall, the military wing of Hezbollah will find it very hard to resupply arms.
It is for this reason that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has decided to publicly throw his weight behind the Assad regime. Hezbollah fighters have great experience in guerilla warfare thanks to more than 30 years of confrontation with Israel.
Hezbollah's entry into the Syrian civil war has worsened the already tense relationships between Lebanon’s various religious communities, making it more likely that it will slip back into civil war itself.
Jordan
The estimated 540,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan are a huge strain on the ailing economy. Meanwhile, King Abdullah’s government is struggling not to get too embroiled in the Syrian civil war, and stresses that that it wants a political solution.
Nevertheless, Jordan allows American troops to train Syrian rebels on its territory and F-16 jets are positioned there.
There are widespread fears in Jordan that Assad will deploy “sleeper” terrorist cells to destabilize the country if it openly backs the rebels. A Jordanian official recently told NBC News that officials there believe such an attack is inevitable.
Hamas: The Palestinians
The militant Sunni Palestinian group that governs Gaza used to have an important base in Syria’s capital Damascus, where it was both hosted by, and held hostage to, the whims of the Assad regime.
Hamas withdrew in 2011 after receiving support from Islamist movements sparked by the Arab Spring, and is now supporting Assad’s enemies. Palestinians in Syria are paying the price for the betrayal of their former host and patron, and have been driven out or targeted by bombings. Over 235,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria have been displaced, and more than 80,000 are now refugees again in neighboring countries, according to the U.N.
Israel
Although Syria and Israel are officially still at war, the relationship between the two has been relatively stable.
One of Israel’s main worries is that Islamist militants will enter Israel through the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. While worrying that the Golan could become a springboard for attacks by militants among the rebels battling Assad, Israel has said repeatedly it does not want to be drawn into the fighting.
"We are not seeking to challenge anyone, but no one will harm the State of Israel without a response -- a strong and resolute response," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told soldiers who took part in a Golani infantry brigade exercise in June.
Israel is believed to have carried out three bomb strikes this year in Syria targeting Hezbollah weapons caches but refuses to confirm or deny whether it was responsible.
IN CONCLUSION
Although the civil war is centered on Syria, it is risks inflaming unrest across the Middle East. “The whole region could face a sustained period of violence,” University of London's Chris Phillips added.
NBC News' F. Brinley Bruton contributed to this report.
Related:
•Syrian opposition leader to Kerry: We're 'desperate,' send arms quickly
•White House: Syria's Assad is 'one of the worst tyrants' of modern era
•Syrians fleeing civil war face backlash in tiny neighbor Lebanon
*** 116 Comments
Read more: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/28/19679903-analysis-whos-backing-who-as-syrias-civil-war-threatens-to-spread
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Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
NBC NEWS
13 hours ago
Daniel Leal Olivas / AFP - Getty Images
A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country
By Mandy Clark and Paul Nassar, NBC News
News analysis
Syria’s two-year civil war has claimed more than 100,000 lives and sent at least 1.7 million refugees spilling across its borders.
It has already affected neighboring countries, and now threatens to drag in the United States.
What began as a popular movement, demanding the removal of autocratic President Bashar Assad, has become an increasingly sectarian conflict.
About three-quarters of Syria's Muslims are from the Sunni sect. However, the Assad dynasty, which has ruled the country since 1970, is from the minority Alawite sect which is close to Shiite Islam.
The sectarian divide is important because it lies at the root of instability not only within Syria but also in Iraq and other pockets of the Middle East.
ASSAD’S FRIENDS
Iran
The Islamic Republic of Iran - a Shiite Muslim regional power - is a staunch ally of the Assad government and has been providing arms, military training and cash. If Assad falls, Iran will be deeply wounded.
Defense think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) sees the Syria conflict as part of a regional power struggle.
“It is increasingly clear that the world is confronting a crisis that extends far beyond Syria, threatening to deteriorate into a regional conflict,” a recent briefing paper outlined. “Now part civil, part proxy, it has also become a great power struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.”
Iraq
After American troops toppled Sunni Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq’s Shiite majority became dominant. With this shift came regional alliances with Shiite countries including Iran and Syria.
Iraq provides a helping hand to the Assad regime by allowing Iranian arms and fighters to cross into Syria from Iraq, according to Secretary of State John Kerry. It also allows vital resupply flights from Iran to cross its airspace.
But this support is not without its costs: Violence is slipping across the border into Iraq and inflaming existing tensions. Deadly attacks are growing in Iraq, with the number of deaths due to violence back up at 2008 levels.
RUSI warns that if the Syria conflict continues, “the most important casualty of war is potentially Iraq.”
Russia
Russia is the Syrian government’s most powerful foreign backer and has stuck its neck out to support Assad’s crackdown.
It is helping the regime with weapons and even supports the growing involvement of Lebanese militia, Hezbollah. It is also reportedly helping Syria’s elite get around international financial sanctions, and has been protecting the regime from U.N. sanctions by using its veto power in the Security Council.
One theory for why Russia has been so resolute in its backing of Damascus is to ensure continued control of its only Mediterranean naval base, which is in the Syrian port of Tartus.
Russia has also invoked the specter of Islamic extremism in Syria, saying that Alawite Assad is fighting Sunni Muslim radicals.
ASSAD’S FOES
Saudi Arabia The kingdom is the Syria opposition’s main backer, along with smaller Gulf state of Qatar, and has been sending billions in humanitarian aid and weapons to Syrian rebels.
It is providing advanced weaponry, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles that it hopes will tip the balance for the rebels.
It is a follower of the strict Wahabi branch of Sunni Islam. In backing anti-Assad forces, Saudi Arabia is challenging its main regional foe, Shiite Iran. Some experts believe the Sunni-Shiite divisions are being exaggerated for political reasons.
“Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been willing to use sectarian language to make the Syrian conflict seem like a widespread attack on the Sunni population,” according to Chris Phillips, a lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London. “It’s part of a regional cold war with Iran on the battlefield of Syria.”
Qatar
The small kingdom may exist in the shadow of neighbor Saudi Arabia, but it has big money and ambitions. It has been backing the rebels with humanitarian aid as well as arms, and is has been seeking a more prominent role in the region, offering to host peace talks in its capital, Doha.
Like Saudi Arabia, it is a follower of the strict Wahabi branch of Sunni Islam.
United States
While the American government has supported anti-Assad forces with non-lethal assistance such as training, body armor, communications equipment and food aid, it has deep misgivings over whether to become more involved in the conflict.
Still smarting from unpopular interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. faces fears that deeper engagement in Syria will embroil it in yet another hard-to-exit regional conflict. There are also widespread concerns that American weapons will fall into the hands of radical al Qaeda-linked groups fighting with the rebels.
“Once we take action, we should be prepared for what comes next,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said in a letter to Congress. “Deeper involvement is hard to avoid.”
Until June, the administration was opposed to providing any lethal assistance to Syria's rebels, but in June it said it was moving ahead with sending weapons to vetted members of the opposition.
Turkey
Formerly a close friend of Syria, Turkey’s moderate Islamist government has become a supporter of the rebels and supplying them with arms, security sources and diplomats say, according to Reuters. Officials also look the other way as rebels use the long and porous border as a resupply route.
At Turkey’s request, NATO has installed Patriot missile defenses on the border to protect it from spillover from the war in Syria. The move was aimed at calming Turkey's fears that it could come under attack from Syria.
Turkey also houses 500,000 Syrians in towns and relatively well-equipped refugee camps on the long border with Syria. There is growing anger in Turkey against the newcomers, though, especially after a bombing in the border town of Reyhanli killed more than 50 people.
France
France, the former colonial power in Syria, was the first Western power to join the anti-Assad camp and has been pushing for a more committed international effort to help the rebels.
It is increasingly concerned that Syrian rebels are losing ground and has suggested it will boost shipments of technical, medical and humanitarian aid to the rebels, but declined request for weapons and ammunition.
CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE
Lebanon
Schisms in Syria are mirrored in its tiny neighbor Lebanon, which is a mosaic of religious communities, each with their own allegiances.
Christian and Sunni Muslim communities strongly oppose Assad’s regime, remembering the oppression of the 30-year Syrian occupation of Lebanon.
On the other side is Hezbollah. Of all the regional players, the powerful Shiite militia that controls much of Lebanon - and forms part of the government - may have the most at stake in the civil war. Should Assad fall, the military wing of Hezbollah will find it very hard to resupply arms.
It is for this reason that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has decided to publicly throw his weight behind the Assad regime. Hezbollah fighters have great experience in guerilla warfare thanks to more than 30 years of confrontation with Israel.
Hezbollah's entry into the Syrian civil war has worsened the already tense relationships between Lebanon’s various religious communities, making it more likely that it will slip back into civil war itself.
Jordan
The estimated 540,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan are a huge strain on the ailing economy. Meanwhile, King Abdullah’s government is struggling not to get too embroiled in the Syrian civil war, and stresses that that it wants a political solution.
Nevertheless, Jordan allows American troops to train Syrian rebels on its territory and F-16 jets are positioned there.
There are widespread fears in Jordan that Assad will deploy “sleeper” terrorist cells to destabilize the country if it openly backs the rebels. A Jordanian official recently told NBC News that officials there believe such an attack is inevitable.
Hamas: The Palestinians
The militant Sunni Palestinian group that governs Gaza used to have an important base in Syria’s capital Damascus, where it was both hosted by, and held hostage to, the whims of the Assad regime.
Hamas withdrew in 2011 after receiving support from Islamist movements sparked by the Arab Spring, and is now supporting Assad’s enemies. Palestinians in Syria are paying the price for the betrayal of their former host and patron, and have been driven out or targeted by bombings. Over 235,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria have been displaced, and more than 80,000 are now refugees again in neighboring countries, according to the U.N.
Israel
Although Syria and Israel are officially still at war, the relationship between the two has been relatively stable.
One of Israel’s main worries is that Islamist militants will enter Israel through the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. While worrying that the Golan could become a springboard for attacks by militants among the rebels battling Assad, Israel has said repeatedly it does not want to be drawn into the fighting.
"We are not seeking to challenge anyone, but no one will harm the State of Israel without a response -- a strong and resolute response," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told soldiers who took part in a Golani infantry brigade exercise in June.
Israel is believed to have carried out three bomb strikes this year in Syria targeting Hezbollah weapons caches but refuses to confirm or deny whether it was responsible.
IN CONCLUSION
Although the civil war is centered on Syria, it is risks inflaming unrest across the Middle East. “The whole region could face a sustained period of violence,” University of London's Chris Phillips added.
NBC News' F. Brinley Bruton contributed to this report.
Related:
•Syrian opposition leader to Kerry: We're 'desperate,' send arms quickly
•White House: Syria's Assad is 'one of the worst tyrants' of modern era
•Syrians fleeing civil war face backlash in tiny neighbor Lebanon
*** 116 Comments
Read more: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/28/19679903-analysis-whos-backing-who-as-syrias-civil-war-threatens-to-spread
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WORLD_ 123 killed in fighting in northern Syria
123 killed in fighting in northern Syria
Updated: 17:41, Saturday, 27 July 2013
RTE NEWS
Ake Sellstrom's full team has not been allowed into Syria
Syrian state media claim 123 people have been killed in fighting in the northern town of Khan al-Assad in Syria
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad monitoring group, said that more than 150 soldiers were killed on Monday and Tuesday in and around the town, including 51 soldiers and officers who were executed.
Meanwhile, the United Nations and Syria said this afternoon that negotiations between the Syrian government and UN chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom were "productive".
However, they did not say if Mr Sellstrom’s team would be allowed to probe allegations that such weapons had been used in the country's civil war.
Mr Sellstrom's full team has not been allowed into Syria. His mission this week was to prepare the ground for an investigation.
Mr Sellstrom met Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, and a joint UN-Syrian statement said "discussions were thorough and productive and led to an agreement on the way forward".
It did not say if the agreement included access for Sellstrom's team.
Syria has so far refused to let UN investigators go anywhere except Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and its ally Russia say rebels used chemical weapons in March.
The United States said last month it had proof that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against fighters trying to overthrow Mr Assad.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has insisted that his team be permitted to visit at least one other location, the city of Homs, site of an alleged chemical attack by government forces in December 2012.
Both sides deny using chemical weapons in a war which the UN says has killed 100,000 people.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
29072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Updated: 17:41, Saturday, 27 July 2013
RTE NEWS
Ake Sellstrom's full team has not been allowed into Syria
Syrian state media claim 123 people have been killed in fighting in the northern town of Khan al-Assad in Syria
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad monitoring group, said that more than 150 soldiers were killed on Monday and Tuesday in and around the town, including 51 soldiers and officers who were executed.
Meanwhile, the United Nations and Syria said this afternoon that negotiations between the Syrian government and UN chemical weapons investigator Ake Sellstrom were "productive".
However, they did not say if Mr Sellstrom’s team would be allowed to probe allegations that such weapons had been used in the country's civil war.
Mr Sellstrom's full team has not been allowed into Syria. His mission this week was to prepare the ground for an investigation.
Mr Sellstrom met Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, and a joint UN-Syrian statement said "discussions were thorough and productive and led to an agreement on the way forward".
It did not say if the agreement included access for Sellstrom's team.
Syria has so far refused to let UN investigators go anywhere except Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and its ally Russia say rebels used chemical weapons in March.
The United States said last month it had proof that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against fighters trying to overthrow Mr Assad.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has insisted that his team be permitted to visit at least one other location, the city of Homs, site of an alleged chemical attack by government forces in December 2012.
Both sides deny using chemical weapons in a war which the UN says has killed 100,000 people.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
29072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
WORLD_ Syria peace hopes fade after rebels' talks with West
Syria peace hopes fade after rebels' talks with West
By Tim Witcher
Published July 27, 2013
AFP
Burned-out cars after an attack that killed at least 17 people on Thursday in Jaramana suburb in Damascus. Syria's main opposition group wanted to talk about their "desperate" need for weapons, but Western leaders they met this week preferred to discuss floundering hopes for a peace conference. (Syria Arab News Agency/AFP)
NEW YORK (AFP) – Syria's main opposition group wanted to talk about their "desperate" need for weapons, but Western leaders they met this week preferred to discuss floundering hopes for a peace conference.
The two sides seemed to be talking past each other.
The diplomatic dance around the Syrian National Coalition tour just confirmed that President Bashar al-Assad and his rebel opponents are nowhere near ready to thrash out a peace deal, according to diplomats and experts.
New coalition leader Ahmad Jarba met with French President Francois Hollande, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the divided UN Security Council in a week in which the war stakes grew horrifyingly worse.
UN officials said the death toll from more than 28-months of conflict passed 100,000, tens of thousands joined nearly 1.8 million refugees outside Syria, and overspill tensions worsened in Lebanon and Iraq.
Jarba and rebel military chief General Selim Idriss called on the French president to supply arms. Jarba made the same demand to Kerry in New York, and called on the Security Council to increase "pressure" on Assad.
"Until the regime has been forced to accept a political solution, we must have the means to protect ourselves and defend civilians," Jarba said after the New York meeting. A refusal would mean thousands more would be "executed."
Kerry and UN leader Ban Ki-moon stressed the need however for new efforts to get the two sides to a conference to discuss a transitional government that the United States and Russia say they want to hold in Geneva.
Both said there can be "no military solution" to the conflict where the death toll has overtaken the 1992-95 Bosnia war, and the refugee flood is closing to beating the exodus from the Rwanda genocide in 1994.
But the United States, France and Britain are all considering arming the rebels, while the UN's Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahim admitted this week that "it is extremely difficult to bring together those who have been killing each other for two years."
Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the talk of a peace conference hid "overt" and "covert" policies by western nations.
"Overtly we do not provide lethal assistance," said Tabler. "But covertly we do and that is currently being considered."
"We are going through the motions on the Geneva stuff because officially our policy is to support Geneva, but nobody thinks that it will work any time soon," he said.
The divided opposition has not agreed who would attend any conference, and there are still major questions over the terms for involvement by Assad's government.
The Syrian coalition says talks must be based on a transition in which Assad is kept out of the picture. Diplomats say Assad would never agree to being pushed aside.
Assad's forces have claimed a number of battlefield victories with their Lebanese Hezbollah militia allies, and doubts about the opposition have been raised because of the divisions and fears over extremist elements.
Burhan Ghalioun, a senior national coalition member who took part in the talks with Hollande and Kerry, said the tour has boosted the image of the opposition.
"With this tour we are making a comeback and the international community now understands the gravity of the situation," he told AFP.
Before the international community "was afraid of the risks" of deeper involvement. "Now they know that if they don't intervene there are multiple risks."
Ghalioun said it was wrong to believe that the opposition is against a peace conference and only wants Western arms.
"The opposition is for a political solution on the condition that it is an opportunity to bring real results," he said.
He also said the coalition wants the international community and United Nations to give assurances that a conference will lead to a transition "and not sterile negotiations that go nowhere and that allow the Syrian regime to continue killing."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/27/syria-peace-hopes-fade-after-rebels-talks-with-west/#ixzz2aKYh2ivE
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
28072013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
By Tim Witcher
Published July 27, 2013
AFP
Burned-out cars after an attack that killed at least 17 people on Thursday in Jaramana suburb in Damascus. Syria's main opposition group wanted to talk about their "desperate" need for weapons, but Western leaders they met this week preferred to discuss floundering hopes for a peace conference. (Syria Arab News Agency/AFP)
NEW YORK (AFP) – Syria's main opposition group wanted to talk about their "desperate" need for weapons, but Western leaders they met this week preferred to discuss floundering hopes for a peace conference.
The two sides seemed to be talking past each other.
The diplomatic dance around the Syrian National Coalition tour just confirmed that President Bashar al-Assad and his rebel opponents are nowhere near ready to thrash out a peace deal, according to diplomats and experts.
New coalition leader Ahmad Jarba met with French President Francois Hollande, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the divided UN Security Council in a week in which the war stakes grew horrifyingly worse.
UN officials said the death toll from more than 28-months of conflict passed 100,000, tens of thousands joined nearly 1.8 million refugees outside Syria, and overspill tensions worsened in Lebanon and Iraq.
Jarba and rebel military chief General Selim Idriss called on the French president to supply arms. Jarba made the same demand to Kerry in New York, and called on the Security Council to increase "pressure" on Assad.
"Until the regime has been forced to accept a political solution, we must have the means to protect ourselves and defend civilians," Jarba said after the New York meeting. A refusal would mean thousands more would be "executed."
Kerry and UN leader Ban Ki-moon stressed the need however for new efforts to get the two sides to a conference to discuss a transitional government that the United States and Russia say they want to hold in Geneva.
Both said there can be "no military solution" to the conflict where the death toll has overtaken the 1992-95 Bosnia war, and the refugee flood is closing to beating the exodus from the Rwanda genocide in 1994.
But the United States, France and Britain are all considering arming the rebels, while the UN's Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahim admitted this week that "it is extremely difficult to bring together those who have been killing each other for two years."
Andrew Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the talk of a peace conference hid "overt" and "covert" policies by western nations.
"Overtly we do not provide lethal assistance," said Tabler. "But covertly we do and that is currently being considered."
"We are going through the motions on the Geneva stuff because officially our policy is to support Geneva, but nobody thinks that it will work any time soon," he said.
The divided opposition has not agreed who would attend any conference, and there are still major questions over the terms for involvement by Assad's government.
The Syrian coalition says talks must be based on a transition in which Assad is kept out of the picture. Diplomats say Assad would never agree to being pushed aside.
Assad's forces have claimed a number of battlefield victories with their Lebanese Hezbollah militia allies, and doubts about the opposition have been raised because of the divisions and fears over extremist elements.
Burhan Ghalioun, a senior national coalition member who took part in the talks with Hollande and Kerry, said the tour has boosted the image of the opposition.
"With this tour we are making a comeback and the international community now understands the gravity of the situation," he told AFP.
Before the international community "was afraid of the risks" of deeper involvement. "Now they know that if they don't intervene there are multiple risks."
Ghalioun said it was wrong to believe that the opposition is against a peace conference and only wants Western arms.
"The opposition is for a political solution on the condition that it is an opportunity to bring real results," he said.
He also said the coalition wants the international community and United Nations to give assurances that a conference will lead to a transition "and not sterile negotiations that go nowhere and that allow the Syrian regime to continue killing."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/27/syria-peace-hopes-fade-after-rebels-talks-with-west/#ixzz2aKYh2ivE
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